The International Coastal Cleanup is back for its 41st year, bringing hundreds of thousands of volunteers together across 110 countries to clean up coastlines.<\/p>\n
In South Florida, International Coastal Cleanup Miami-Dade is the third-largest cleanup in the U.S. and the largest single-day environmental community service event in Miami each year.<\/p>\n
Nearly 4,000 residents are taking part in the effort to clean up the shorelines.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday we are at the Julia Tuttle Causeway,\u201d said Dave Doebler, executive director of VolunteerCleanup.org<\/a>. \u201cThis is one of 75 cleanups happening all over Miami-Dade, organized by VolunteerCleanup.org, but led by individual community leaders and nonprofits and government in all of the locations all the way from Aventura down to Homestead.\u201d<\/p>\n At a cleanup near the bay, volunteers found plenty of plastic litter, including bottle caps.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year we picked up 4,000 pounds of trash right here next to the bay which is so shocking and sad,\u201d said Sophie Ringel, executive director of Clean Miami Beach. \u201cBut it\u2019s also good that we\u2019re getting the community together, that we\u2019re reconnecting with nature and setting an example of how to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n Plastic remains a major concern along Biscayne Bay. A recent study by FIU estimates that 18 billion microplastics pollute the bay.<\/p>\n \u201cPlastic is awful. There\u2019s no reason for plastic water bottles. You can use a recyclable, a reusable, a refillable one,\u201d said Miami Beach Mayor Eileen Higgins. \u201cThey break down into microplastics. Those are embedded in our body, they found them in our brains. They\u2019re in the water. They\u2019re in the fish we eat.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot be ruining Biscayne Bay nor our health with plastic,\u201d Higgins said.<\/p>\n While cleanups remove tons of trash from the bay, organizers and county officials say keeping that trash from reaching the water in the first place is critical.<\/p>\n Miami-Dade County is pushing two master plans, one focused on stormwater<\/a> and another focused on waste.<\/p>\n \u201cThe water flows in our city from west to east and empties into the bay and those areas,\u201d said Damien Pardo. \u201cSo the plan is a way of making sure that that is draining properly and filtering properly. So when the water reaches the coastline, it\u2019s clear water.\u201d<\/p>\n